Off to the Melbourne Cup!

Melbourne Cup day is one of my favourite days of the year. As a horse lover and a racing fan, it’s not the fashion and the glamour that draws me but rather the elusiveness and history of the prize. To win the Melbourne Cup is the aim of anyone who has raced horses. Just to have a runner in the final field of 24 is a dream of many. With most winners comes a story. Some are told for decades to come, such as Archer, Phar Lap and more recently Media Puzzle. This also adds to the romance.

This year marks the 150th running of the Cup, the race that stops a nation. But when did it become such an event? When Phar Lap gave some certainty to depression weary Australians in the 1930s? When television was able to beam the Cup into lounge rooms around the country? Or in the past 15 years or so, with the need to display opulence moving it from a day of silly hats as in the 1970s and 80s, to high-class fashion, marquees and celebrities? None of these. The Cup’s standing today is just as it has been from the beginning in 1861.

Reading The Argus or The Portland Guardian from the time of the early Cups reveals even then it was a highlight of the racing year. Racing was well established by the time the Cup began, with many towns having a race track. Steeple-chasing was a popular pursuit, particularly in the Western District, at tracks such as Coleraine and Hamilton. Racing as a pastime probably had a greater following then than it does today. Remember that the crowds that flock to the races this week are not indicative of attendances on regular race days.

The Brisbane Courier reported the first Cup had created interest not seen before in the colonies.

The Melbourne Cup was popular among the fine ladies and gentleman of the Western District. Many, some with their own racing connections, would make the trip to partake in the carnival. There have also been Western District owners, trainers, jockeys and horses involved in the running over the years, such as the Chirnsides and 1941 Cup winner Skipton.

Melbourne businesses knew of the interest and advertised in the Portland Guardian to lure some of the Western District money as this advertisement from 1877 shows:

It was an article “Off to the Melbourne Cup” in the Portland Guardian on October 28, 1887 which sums up the grasp the Melbourne Cup holds on the people of Australia. It could easily have today’s date on it.

4 responses to “Off to the Melbourne Cup!”

that steamer from Portland to The Cup should be restored.
‘Our’ Richard Lewis brought the first Thoroughbred to Victoria – King Alfred – and young Chris Coulson famously swam the horse from boat to shore.
Thanks to you, I have learned today from searching The Portland Guardian, that one of my Sedgwicks was a jockey 1889-95 at Myanmyn, Narrawong and Heywood, and rode Alfredene (must have been a progeny of King Alfred) for Mr R D Douglas.

Hi Ann, the races were very social on every level! I like how Bonwick was never afraid to point out immoral behaviour, but I was pleased he thought my ancestor’s town of Byaduk was one of good moral standing. That really is a great book, I never tire of reading it.